Could you imagine a scenario in which Messrs Gibson and Scott sit in front of a computer/laptop/tablet/mobile phone and ask whichever IT brain is embedded within to trawl through the likely candidates to be the next Boro manager?
And, whilst you're at it, which would be the best tactics and formation for a Boro side listed next to play Oxford United (might as well throw the Coventry City game in there as well)...
Well, if the AI assistant of choice has been trained to trawl the pages and pages of Diasboro postings , then I am sure it could come up with a pretty good response !!
Your excellent AI summary of the Boro's managerial situation presents the best evidence that I have yet seen for AI replacing journalists who do nothing more than go through old press releases themselves. AI can do that job far cheaper and more efficiently.
The implications for hack workers, those who are merely reproducing existing knowledge in any field- which is what our education system is designed to produce-are terrifying. It's creative and original thinking that we need to encourage and develop and pretty darn quickly
@lenmasterman It took me no more than 30 seconds to think of and then to type the question (or the "prompt" in AI geek speak) into Gemini and less than 30 seconds for it then to have written the article for me.
@original-fat-bob. Exactly my thinking and which led to my post on the 09/11/25 @ 1:37 as detailed below:
”Just a thought, could the reason that SG invited Brian Robson to yesterday’s match was to discuss the next managerial appointment with him and to obtain information on Ole Gunnar Solksjaer? 😎”
@powmillnaemore Is that not what numerous students are doing now. I guess the problem being is they may all be submitting the same article. So nothing new or inventive.
Unfortunately, online reporting has been reduced to providing content clicks for advertising and as Powmill said earlier the 24 hours rolling news culture has to be fed regardless of there being anything meaningful to say. In reality nobody remembers what was written yesterday and whether it was true or accurate.
Though the actually reporting only involves sitting at a screen and browsing through what has been posted by others and then reporting it as if a one-time journalist had been checking their sources for news - sources today are basically just a cursory glance at the internet.
I noted on Teesside Live they still quoting Raphael Wicky as winning the double at Basel - he didn't, it just mistakenly says he did in Wikipedia as I checked other sources, which clearly show he was appointed at the end of that season when they won the double.
I presume Powmill has just demonstrated the job of being a 'reporter' that searches for information on the internet can be more efficiently done by AI - so the writing is on the wall for this type of journalism - which as far as I can see is not run past an editor so why pay someone to create content for advertising clicks?
In the end, we want to read something that is thoughtfully produced and adds to our understanding and knowledge - sadly there's not much out there anymore and we've no confidence that what is there is worthwhile. News and information has just become another traded commodity amongst the increasingly very loud noise of opinion dressed up as facts...
I don'r think we have not heard anything yet about the name of the next Boro manager. It will someone else than those mentined in this forum before. And that is good.
I have a dream team for the Boro dugout:
Sir Southgate, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Adi Viveash -all of them together!
Simples. Gibbo, just take the phone now 😆. Up the Boro!
Apparently wicky has given his presentation to Boro and they were impressed!
Plays 442 and a high pressing game
OFB
Why don't I take a breather and recommend a football film instead?
I'm lucky enough to have met and spoken to Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D'Sa. Their second feature film (Good Vibrations), and third feature film (Ordinary Love) have both been very good or tremendous experiences. Therefore I had high hopes for their film about the Roy Keane & Mick McCarthy "duel" in Saipan - and having caught it at the Belfast Film Festival, I was not disappointed in the least.
Casting was very well thought through. Éanna Hardwicke, who plays Keane, is a Cork man. Steve Coogan really nails the essence of Mick McCarthy, and like McCarthy, he has Irish ancestry. Harriet Cains, who plays Theresa Keane, is from Nottingham - the very place where the then future Mr and Mrs Keane met.
The story is primarily told through the Larger-Than-Life Duel narrative that defines such classics as Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, West Side Story (2021)*, and perhaps all of Spielberg's greats. (Jaws has man-versus-machine elements, and it is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that this film's Keane comes across as alarmingly machinic at times, a reflection of the winning machine Sir Alex Ferguson built.) The famous "final argument", even though I knew what was going to happen, had me right on the edge of my seat. To me it acted as a tragic and truthful summation of the emotive cauldron that football is, a sport and place where logic and sense can be either tossed to the wind or be entirely alien for a while.
I'm still penning a review. Hopefully I'll have it up tomorrow morning. The film is due a wide release in January, and I do suggest you see it.
*I love West Side Story (1961) too.
McGree on in the 66th minute for the Socceroos in Houston against Venezuela.
@original-fat-bob think Wicky would be my chice given the seemingly lack of choice.
Whilst i have no concerns with Viveaah holding the reigns i do hope we start to move close to an appointment over the next seven days.
Following the win over Brum they seems to be a thought process that everything is rosy with Viveash, which it may well be, but its a tough ask on your own, yes he will be getting support i am sure but a big responsibility all the same.
My worry would be is if we turn out against Oxford and suffer a defeat, all of a sudden there will be pressure on the club to sort the head coach situation.
Yes it is important to ensure we get the right person but the clock doesnt stop ticking and before we know it the game after game championship will be back upon us.
@presidentjump If MFC are as choosy as we are on this blog, then in reality, there really cannot be many people in the pack.
The longer part of the process maybe around the use of Viveash and any new assistants and with the agent on the contract details
Having given Wicky serious thought, I'm ruling him out on the basis that he's styling himself to look like Morrissey...
Good shout, Werder. We don’t want another Charming Man.
Plenty of Smiths songs to describe our last incumbent:
Miserable lie
Half a person
Money changes everything
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before
I started something I couldn’t finish
UTB
@eboroacum Heaven knows I’m miserable now…
That'll be Rob Edwards three months from now ...@eboroacum Heaven knows I’m miserable now…
That'll be Rob Edwards three months from now ...@eboroacum Heaven knows I’m miserable now…
I should have gone for, “ I was looking for a job, then I found a job - heaven knows I’m miserable now” Perfect for the RE experience.
Something else I've been reminded of from the brief but memorable tenure of Rob Edwards is that a head coach becoming or appearing so emotionally engaged is an enormous risk. Because if you make that sudden shift from completely engaged to entirely detached, and if it happens in such a short space of time, and if you are the figurehead of that engagement, fans really will not take it kindly - especially if that engagement has come and gone in such a short space of time.
The flip side of that is that this level of emotional engagement is exactly what the fans want to see. Someone who appears animated, someone who seems forward-thinking, someone who looks like they want to make a difference.
"Appears"... "Seems"... "Looks"... says it all. I can contrast this with a story I once heard about a manager who appeared dour and humourless on screen, but turned out to be funny, warm, charming and intelligent in person... he just didn't like TV cameras.
More thoughts.
I rewatched Jaws this summer to mark its fiftieth anniversary and concluded that it might just be a perfect film. It is, in one way, a reflection of various desires to move forward, and various needs to protect the self, in society. The implication is there that closing the beaches might not be as much of a solution as Brody thinks it is, because, as Jurassic Park later, bluntly, stated, "life finds a way".
One does look for protection, the kind of protection that, say, Aitor Karanka offered for so long with his carefully (all too carefully?) controlled string of results for at least a year and a half. It's a form of assurance that unavoidably comes from knowing one has something they can count on or someone they can depend on... but we are never prepared for the sudden deviation from these courses that appears to happen on a frighteningly regular basis. Were we prepared for both Emerson and Ravanelli to go missing in their own way, for that virus in December '96, for Juninho to be closed down, for Merson to suddenly depart for Villa, for the McClaren To Leeds speculation, for the England circus during the UEFA Cup Final preparation, for the Lost Weekend, and more? How we handle this latest episode will play a big part in defining us.
In terms of Rob Edwards deciding to leave Boro maybe: 'I don't owe you anything'...
Raphaël Wicky is emerging as a serious contender to take over at Middlesbrough. Wicky was interviewed today at Boro training ground. Former Chicago Fire & Young Boys head coach was very close to West Brom job earlier this year. (John Percy- Telegraph Sport)
Wicky is a name many may be unfamiliar with, but he has steadily moved up the bettting to sit second favourite behind Gerrard with many bookmakers.g he
Swiss-born Wicky speaks four languages fluently, is a former international midfielder with 75 caps under his belt and boasts an impressive playing CV with spells at Werder Bremen, Atletico Madrid and Hamburg.
My thoughts are more for Wicky than Gerrard or O’Neil, am I alone with that thought 🤔.
Come on BORO.
Gerrard would be a “ name “ to get but he’s not achieved much. Okay, he was successful for one year in Scotland but at the time there was only one team to beat. He’s not really done anything of note since. A brilliant footballer does not naturally result in an exceptional coach.
We are having the same conversations before Edwards was appointed and so we must trust Gibson to make the right appointment for Boro.
philip of Huddersfield 👋🤔